Dial M for Mother

12:00AM GMT 27 Dec 2000

MOBILE phones, apparently, present endless hazards. First Norman Lamont condemned (and announced his intention to tax) them for disrupting restaurants, then some scientists suggested - on evidence that is still hotly disputed - that frequent use may result in brain cancer.

But now Hilary Fender, headmistress of Headington, in Oxford, has identified a more plausible danger: that teenagers are being turned into milksops by their reliance on mobile communications. "As a mother myself, I understand the anxiety," says Mrs Fender of parents who present their offspring with phones to keep in touch in case of emergency. "But sometimes it is really important for teenagers to be on their own, out of touch, unable to reach instantly for parental support and to work things out for themselves."

Mrs Fender's pupils tend to share that view, pointing out that those who do not deal with problems by themselves and rely on their parents for a lift rather than negotiating timetables and public transport will face difficulties when they leave school and home.

Older users, who long ago discovered that their handsets put them at the beck and call of their office at all hours, and who make calls themselves only to announce that they are - still - on the train, will not be surprised that an invention promising independence actually produces the opposite result. But if they do want to encourage initiative in their teenage children, there is one obvious solution: present them with the bills, as well as the phones.